India has the opportunity to become a pipeline for global leaders of the future, said Krishnan Rajagopalan, executive vice president and managing partner-executive search at Chicago-headquarted executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. In an interview with ET’s Sreeradha D Basu, Rajagopalan said the country is at an inflexion point -- from being a recognised provider of skilled tech talent to providing leadership talent. Edited excerpts:

Are you seeing more and more Indian candidates coming up in global search mandates?

Absolutely. We are seeing more such candidates and we will continue to see more. Indian CXOs have demonstrated that they are multicultural, technically competent and running big businesses that have exhibited growth. This makes them very attractive candidates, and globally too, companies are very open to Indian leadership and CEOs. Given what is happening in the country now, there is an opportunity for India to create stronger leaders. There is innovation happening in startups that will drive its own crop of leaders; the transformation required in IT services will create a whole bunch of new leaders to transform business models and even Make in India will drive new leaders in the manufacturing sector.

Given how Indian CXOs are making a mark globally, do you see the gap in compensation between Indian and global talent narrowing?

What we see happening is more and more global jobs coming to India and these are being paid at a higher rate than a traditional Indiabased job. Compensation is going up and the gap between that role and what it would have paid in the US and Europe has narrowed.

Which are the sectors that are hiring leadership talent most aggressively?

For India, there is a lot of growth in the industrial sector, and we continue to see growth in technology and professional services. Consumer has been strong, so has life sciences this year.

How important is diversity at the top and where does India fare in this respect?

India lags behind in terms of women’s representation on boards, behind global averages of about 14-15% and against high marks of 30-40% in certain parts of Europe. Obviously creating management roles is important but one needs to also train individuals and put in place better programmes, work-life balance to support diversity.

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